Antarctic sea ice has been above average for 1000 straight days

Like watching the number of days that a major hurricane has not made landfall on the United States (now over 3000 days), we can now watch the number of days that Antarctica’s sea ice continues to be above the 30 year baseline. The constant growth is remarkable.

As shown in the plot below, data from University of Illinois Cryosphere Today shows that Antarctic Sea Ice Extent Anomaly has been positive since July 5th, 2011.

We are now on day 1001 of positive anomaly based on the 1979-2008 baseline.

Antarctic_sea_ice_anom-1000days

Here is all the data plotted:

timeseries.south.anom.1979-2014-all

Source of the data: http://arctic.atmos.uiuc.edu/cryosphere/timeseries.south.anom.1979-2008

 

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August 22, 2014 8:40 am

They should make a movie “Ice of Thousand Days”

August 22, 2014 8:42 am

Weather, not climate.
But “inconvenient” and very funny.

Chris B
August 22, 2014 8:51 am

Apparently the ice shelf is melting so fast it’s changing the salinity of the surrounding Ocean, causing it to freeze at the higher temperatures? That’s according to the remaining CAGW diehards.

August 22, 2014 8:54 am

Old song, “The Night has a Thousand eyes” = “The Ice has a thousand nights”.

Editor
August 22, 2014 8:57 am

This side of the pond we have had report on the BBC news that all the missing heat has gone into the Atlantic and Southern oceans. I am not even going to comment on something as unscientific as this, except to say is this the best they can come up with? The EU have banned vacuum cleaners of over 1200 watts from 1st September and from 2017 any vacuum cleaner over 900 watts is also being banned. This is to combat climate change. No global warming for almost 18 years, biggest sea ice area in Antarctica and no major hurricanes making landfall on your side of the pond.
Am I missing something here or has the world gone barking mad?

Frank Johansen
August 22, 2014 8:58 am

The data plot since 1979 looks awfully like a hockey stick…oups!

August 22, 2014 8:59 am

Start sounding the alarm.
In 8 years (Or MORE) the Antarctic ice COULD be touching the land of Terra De Fuego or MAYBE blocking Cape Horn.
IF this rate of expansion WAS to continue at a linear rate the Southern Oceans COULD be solid by 2022.
Headline from AP:
World DOOMED to FREEZE by 2020.

John ;0)
August 22, 2014 9:00 am

Seeing there is so much ice down there, we should chop a couple of chunks off and tow them to california, I heard whiskey on the rocks and snow cones were soon to be put on the endangered species list

Werner Brozek
August 22, 2014 9:01 am

“positive since July 5th, 2011”
Should it not be from November 23, 2011?
2011.8932 -0.1083351
2011.8959 0.0038598

Madman2001
August 22, 2014 9:03 am

M Courtney said:
“Weather, not climate.”
I am usually all over posts that breathlessly announce new low temperature records, etc. But, here we are talking about an entire continent and a period of three years, so it’s a bit beyond weather.

Old'un
August 22, 2014 9:06 am

Looks like a hockey stick Is looming!

John V. Wright
August 22, 2014 9:14 am

John ;0) – Whiskey on the rocks SHOULD be an endangered species. The only thing that needs adding to Irish whiskey (in a plain, heavy glass tumbler) is more Irish whiskey. :0)
To my fellow Brit andrewmharding – andrew, old chap, the world HAS gone barking mad. The banning of vacuum cleaners of more than 1200 watts will lead to people using less powerful cleaners for longer. You really could not make this stuff up.
Talking of Watts – Anthony, thank you for your consistently intelligent and fascinating blog. Sometimes, WUWT seems to be the only sane voice in a world where commonsense, scientific standards and professional integrity seem to have gone walkabout.

August 22, 2014 9:15 am

Madman2001 says:
August 22, 2014 at 9:03 am
M Courtney said:
“Weather, not climate.”
I am usually all over posts that breathlessly announce new low temperature records, etc. But, here we are talking about an entire continent and a period of three years, so it’s a bit beyond weather.

And to put it into context, the arctic has had a negative anomaly since day 93, 2003, about 8 years longer.

SAMURAI
August 22, 2014 9:29 am

This is truly amazing.
The CAGW models all projected Antarctic ice extent should have been shrinking, not setting a 35-yr record anomaly and showing a 35-yr growing trend…
It’s almost certain to set the largest Antarctic ice extent maximum ever recorded next month.
BTW, it looks like something strange happened with Norsex Arctic Ice Extent data yesterday. It dropped almost 1 million KM^2 in one day…
http://arctic-roos.org/observations/satellite-data/sea-ice/observation_images/ssmi1_ice_area.png
Something similar happened in March of this year and it was later corrected. What causes this?
Is this just a flaw in missing grid satellite data for the day?

Baronstone
August 22, 2014 9:37 am

, that’s where all the heat has gone, into melting the Arctic

Village Idiot
August 22, 2014 9:41 am

Surely this is nothing “remarkable”. The low Arctic sea ice is due to nothing other than natural variation, wind and ocean currents – like-wise the Antarctic sea ice growth.
Inconvenient than Antarctica itself is losing ice mass:
“… whereas both the West Antarctic Ice Sheet and the Antarctic Peninsula, on the far west of the continent, are rapidly losing volume, East Antarctica is gaining volume — though at a moderate rate that doesn’t compensate the losses on the other side of the continent.”
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/08/140820110538.htm

RACookPE1978
Editor
August 22, 2014 9:41 am

“IF” the Antarctic ice shelf is
(1) “melting” at such higher rates(never measured nor calculated except as several “gigatons per year based on assumed (never calibrated!) GRACE satellite assumptions) to
(2) dilute the surrounding seawater to
(3) raise the normal salt water ocean freezing point from
(4) -x.xx degrees C (never stated! in these arm-waving excuses)
(5) -y.yy degrees C (also never stated, never measured, never explicitly referenced from experimental results, never calculated based on actual seawater temperatures nor air temperatures over time at various salinities) by
(6) “diluting the ocean water” by “how much” over “how big an area”
when
(7) in fact, the air over the Antarctic continent has been steadily decreasing over the past 30 years
(8) and so the increased melt rate cannot be justified except by assumptions.
Assume Wikipedia is “good enough” for simple chemistry.

“Seawater or salt water is water from a sea or ocean. On average, seawater in the world’s oceans has a salinity of about 3.5% (35 g/L, or 599 mM). This means that every kilogram (roughly one litre by volume) of seawater has approximately 35 grams (1.2 oz) of dissolved salts (predominantly sodium (Na+) and chloride (Cl−) ions). Average density at the surface is 1.025 g/ml. Seawater is denser than both fresh water and pure water (density 1.0 g/ml 4 °C (39 °F)) because the dissolved salts add mass without contributing significantly to the volume. The freezing point of seawater decreases as salt concentration increases. At typical salinity it freezes at about −2 °C (28 °F).[1] The coldest seawater ever recorded (in a liquid state) was in 2010, in a stream under an Antarctic glacier, and measured −2.6 °C (27.3 °F).[2] Seawater pH is typically limited to a range between 7.5 and 8.4.[3]”

(Odd, isn’t it, that the record LOW freezing point for salt water was recorded in the very dilute runoff water DIRECTLY UNDERNEATH an Antarctic glacier…..)
Also, just the “excess” Antarctic sea ice has been “above normal” as a positive anomaly for 8 years now. The Antarctic sea ice anomaly exceeded 2.05 million sq kilometers of sea ice in June, and has been routinely greater than 1.5 mliion square kilometers this year AT ALL actual areas of sea ice.
Thus, IF the continental ice WAS melting and WAS diluting the seawater and WAS causing the sea water to freeze at higher temperatures (thus creating more sea ice easier) then how do you explain how that sea water was being “diluted” at the same levels when the sea ice is 3.0 Mkm^2 at a distance of 0-50-100 kilometers from shore, as when the edge of the sea ice is 800 – 1000 kilometers from the continental edge with an area of 15.5 to 16.0 Mkm^2?

August 22, 2014 9:42 am

Reblogged this on the WeatherAction Blog and commented:
The anti – death spiral.

Otter (ClimateOtter on Twitter)
August 22, 2014 9:43 am

What’s your point, phil? Spit it out!

August 22, 2014 9:48 am

An interesting race! Although the hurricane watch has over a 3-1 lead, I bet that the Antarctica watch eventually passes it.

Edward Richardson
August 22, 2014 9:56 am

Sea ice may be increasing, but Antarctic ice mass is decreasing.
..
http://www.the-cryosphere.net/8/1539/2014/tc-8-1539-2014.html

August 22, 2014 9:56 am

As to major hurricanes…maybe Ike didn’t qualify, but he sure did destroy my condominium complex. And a helluva lot of other buildings.

A. Smith
August 22, 2014 10:03 am

You know that is in the “grey area” of the global land/ocean surface temperature anomaly. Same for arctic. In other words what happens in the arctic and Antarctic regarding the temoerature anomaly….. Stays there. It doesn’t count. That’s right…. A land mass bigger than US and Mexico combined does jot count.

Hans
August 22, 2014 10:05 am

“Phil. says:
And to put it into context, the arctic has had a negative anomaly since day 93, 2003, about 8 years longer.”
And put in context, that this is written as: “straight days”. In reality, it was long before the antarctic sea ice sum is in a positive anomaly.
It must also to put in context, that we are overall in a warmer world. So its easier to reach a negative anomaly than to reach a positive anomaly with the point “sea ice” and the other way round with the point temperatures. Hence its a wonderfull sign of “old” gaia, that there are overall “thermostates”.
Hans

HomeBrewer
August 22, 2014 10:09 am

Please gents above, we’re allowed to buy vacuum cleaners up to 1600 watts from 1st September.
According to unofficial sources the decision was made after watching this video: http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=HvN8pLdzAS4

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